


This Good Echo.

by OctoberDecember



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Ben Hargreeves Lives, Bisexual Vanya Hargreeves, Gen, Good Sibling Allison Hargreeves, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Luther Hargreeves Has a Human Body, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:55:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25544740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OctoberDecember/pseuds/OctoberDecember
Summary: There are three things Klaus Hargreeves knows for sure:1. He stole a briefcase and went back in time.2. He watched Dave Katz die right next to him.3. He's not crazy.So, why does his family have a blank look on his face when he brings up time travel? And why did he just see Dave Katz walk out of a coffee shop, just as young as he was when he served beside him in Vietnam?Fuck.Maybe Klaus Hargreeves is crazy, after all.Or maybe he just stumbled into a different timeline, one where his family is happy, one where Dave is still alive...But Klaus soon finds out that if he wants to keep things that way, he has to do whatever the Commission wants him to do.
Relationships: Dave & Klaus Hargreeves, Dave/Klaus Hargreeves
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28





	This Good Echo.

**Author's Note:**

> “Each smallest act of kindness, reverberates across great distances and spans of time --affecting lives unknown to the one who’s generous spirit, was the source of this good echo. Because kindness is passed on and grows each time it’s passed until a simple courtesy becomes an act of selfless courage, years later, and far away. Likewise, each small meanness, each expression of hatred, each act of evil.”  
> ― Dean Koontz

“Klaus? Klaus?” Allison Hargreeves was staring down at her brother, her eyebrow quirked and her lips ready to blow out yet another sigh.

She’d found him fast asleep, stretched out on a bus bench. He was holding on, tight, to a briefcase, snuggling it right up to his chest, and he looked like he hadn’t taken a shower in days. Unfortunately, for Allison, this wasn’t the first time she’d found her brother like this.

It’d happened once before, sometime in the spring of 2004.

And then, it happened again, sometime in the spring of 2008.

“Always during an election year…” Allison mumbled, mostly to herself, before she brought a hand down to Klaus’ shoulder to shake him awake. “Klaus? Klaus? Can you hear me?”

“Five more minutes!” Klaus groaned, soon turning onto his other side. “Can’t I at least get a decent amount of sleep before you send me off to fucking die—”

“Send you off to fucking die?” Allison chuckled. “Right. You must have me confused with dad.”

“…Dad?” Klaus then turned back toward his sister, his eyes quickly scanning her up and down. “Wait. Allison?”

“Yes? Were you expecting someone else?” Allison crossed her arms.

But Klaus couldn’t hold back any longer. He rushed for his sister, pulling her into his arms, as he suspiciously sniffed at her hair. He wanted to be sure that _this_ was the real Allison, and not some figment of his imagination, or even worse, an apparition. Klaus didn’t know what he would’ve done if Allison turned out to be dead.

But weeping was on the short list.

However, when he smelled the familiar scent of strawberry and lavender, the telltale sign that Allison had dumped a bunch of her favorite shampoo in her hair that morning, he let out a sigh of pure relief.

Because dead people never smelled like anything.

“You’re real…you’re real…” Tears crept into Klaus’ eyes. “Holy fuck. I did it. I really did it.”

“Did what, Klaus?” Allison frowned. “This isn’t just you coming down off that new drug that Number Five put you on, is it? Because I swear to God, I told Luther that you needed more time to adjust, even if Five thought you were ready to take the trial to the next level.”

“Number Five put me on drugs?” Klaus scoffed. “That little fuck! Was I just tripping, then? Because whatever he put me on made me feel like I was gone for ten months—”

“Ten months?” Allison’s frown somehow cemented even deeper into her expression. “Number Five only put you on new meds last night. Don’t you remember, Klaus?”

“Uh…” Klaus stared back at his sister, with his hands frozen in place at his side.

_Last night?_

Last night, Klaus had just returned from a tour in Vietnam. Last night, Klaus had wandered the cluttered, city streets of New York City, his heart broken into pieces and a migraine so awful it felt like it was threatening to tear his brain in two.

Last night, Klaus was getting wasted at a dive bar.

Last night, Klaus was doing blow in a dirty bathroom stall.

And when he made it back to his shitty, rent-by-the-night motel, he finally decided to open the briefcase that’d ruined everything.

The briefcase that’d somehow sent Klaus spiraling back through time.

The briefcase that’d led him to Dave Katz, the love of Klaus’ miserable life, right before he lost him forever to a perfectly angled bullet.

Klaus hadn’t opened the briefcase in the ten months it’d been in his possession, not since he’d escaped those psychos at the hotel who’d been torturing him for days. When he’d originally yanked it, he thought that it might’ve had some cash inside, or even better, bars of solid gold.

But after he’d opened the briefcase, all he found was a world of pain, and a war that wouldn’t budge from behind his eyes, no matter how many martinis he forced down his throat or how many pills he popped in dark corners of the disco.

And one night, as he danced under fluorescent lights, high as he’d ever been, a beautiful man walked up to him on the dance floor, so beautiful that for a moment, Klaus Hargreeves forgot how to even speak.

_Dave._

Dave was perfect. So perfect, that Klaus had no interest in returning to the present day, no interest in seeing the rest of his family, ever again, if it meant leaving Dave’s side. Klaus wanted nothing more than to spend however much time he had left on this shitty rock with Dave Katz, even if it meant fighting side-by-side in a war, at least until they were discharged and allowed to come home.

But Dave never made it back.

And, believing that his life couldn’t get any worse if he opened the briefcase for a second time, Klaus’ shaky hands finally unclasped its fabric. After that, though, he didn’t remember much, except for waking up on a bus bench with his sister staring down at him with a disapproving look.

The same look she was still wearing on her face, even now.

“What happened to you last night, Klaus?” Allison softly shook her head. “Please, tell me you didn’t.”

“That I didn’t what?”

“You’ve been clean since you were eighteen, Klaus,” Allison replied. “I know things were hard for you before…but we all did so much work, didn’t we? Helping you through it?”

“Clean since I was eighteen?” Klaus couldn’t help but laugh. “Sure, if you mean eighteen minutes ago—”

“What’s in the briefcase, Klaus?”

“What briefcase?”

“The one you were holding onto like your life depended on it.”

“Oh, God. Was I still holding onto that thing?” Klaus turned back toward the bus bench, before he grabbed for the briefcase’s handle.

He then proceeded to throw the briefcase on the ground, as he carefully aligned his foot with its very middle.

And then, he smashed it.

And he smashed it.

And he smashed it.

All the while, blue, electric sparks, crackled throughout the briefcase’s lining, surrounding Klaus’ smashing foot with every stomp. But Klaus kept on with the smashing, not stopping until the electric sparks faded away, not stopping until the briefcase seemed to have gone back to being just a briefcase and nothing more.

“There we go. That’s better.” Klaus looked back at his sister, when all the smashing was said and done.

“…That’s it.” Allison grimaced. “I’m taking you to Luther.”

**

_Number One Coffee Shop._

Klaus blinked a few times at the logo, trying his best to hide the confusion that inched through every segment of his brain. The logo was in black-and-white, featuring a smiling Luther at its center, with his clothing resembling a NASA uniform if Klaus had ever seen one.

But stranger than anything else, Klaus noticed that Luther looked _small_. Not small for an average-sized person, but small for a Luther-sized person, or at least the version of Luther that Klaus had become familiar with the last time he was on this side of the 21st century.

“Is that supposed to be Luther?” Klaus pointed at the logo, his eyes shifting back toward Allison, and then quickly returning to the painted image.

“Klaus, you’ve seen that logo a million times.” Allison rolled her eyes. “Is this your way of letting me know it’s time to update it? Because you can just say that.”

“I mean, we should update it, shouldn’t we?” Klaus looked back over at the logo. “Because Luther hasn’t looked like that in a…really long time.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Luther appeared next to Klaus, with a wide grin on his face. “Are you trying to say I gained weight or something?”

Klaus’ gaze then drifted over to Luther Hargreeves.

And it took everything within his power not to scream at the top of his lungs.

_Luther was back to normal._

He was still big, but the way he _used_ to be big, and not the way he’d become big since the last time Klaus had seen him.

And as Klaus continued to glance over at his brother, he had to withhold yet another scream that threatened to tear through his throat, as he watched Allison plant a soft kiss on Luther’s lips.

“But you’re married!” Klaus blurted toward Allison. “And you’re a total prude! Since when do you go around cheating on your husband—”

“Husband?” Luther smirked. “I’m sorry? Allison, is there something you wanted to tell me? I didn’t realize you’d been running around with another man.”

“Ha. Ha.” Allison rolled her eyes again, this time with a playful air. “I found Klaus sleeping on a bus bench this morning, by the way. I think whatever Five gave him last night came with a pretty strong side effect. He seems like he’s been having hallucinations.”

“I’m not having hallucinations,” Klaus argued. “I’m…fuck. I don’t know what I am. But I know that I’m not hallucinating, alright? Listen, the last time I was here, in this timeline or whatever, I was being tortured by some bad guys, well, one of them was a girl, or at least I think she was, we never had a conversation about pronouns and you know how I like to be respectful—”

“Bad guys?” Luther quietly pressed.

“Oh, the fucking worst.” Klaus shot back. “Anyway, I managed to get away from them. But I snatched one of their briefcases before I left, and when I opened it on the bus, it sent me back in time. I swear to fuck, I spent ten months in fucking Vietnam—”

“Temporary psychosis,” Luther interrupted his brother with a nod. “This was on the list of potential side effects, but Number Five said the risk of this would be minimal.”

“Well, it turns out that Number Five doesn’t know everything,” Allison added. “Do you think you can keep an eye on Klaus for a little while? I’m going to go help Vanya pick out a ring for you-know-who. She’s been so secretive about it, but I think she’s finally going to let us meet her future fiancée soon.”

“I’m sure we’re going to love her.” Luther smiled, before he went on. “And of course, I can watch him. It won’t be a problem. I could use an extra pair of hands running the shop today. One of the guys is leaving early—Oh. Wait. There he goes now.”

Luther turned to wave at one of his employees, a young man with a striking look, dark hair and dark eyes.

A look so striking that Klaus didn’t know how to speak.

_Dave._

“…Dave?” Klaus whispered, as he tried to keep his voice calm, as he tried to keep himself from falling apart.

“Hey, boss! What’s up?” Dave walked over to Luther, before he let out a deep sigh. “Sorry about having to cut out early today. I forgot I’m supposed to present at this museum thing—”

“Oh, you don’t have to apologize to me about that,” Luther continued. “I’m proud of you, buddy. It’s not every day that one of my best employees gets recognized as one of the city’s brightest historians.”

“Independent historian,” Dave corrected. “All the ones who went to fancy colleges aren’t having to work their way up from the bottom.”

“Yeah, but that means it’ll be even sweeter when you make it to the top,” Luther replied. “And I’ll be right there in the bleachers, cheering you on.”

“Bleachers? At a museum—” Dave stopped himself, mid-sentence, realizing that it wasn’t going to be worth the explanation. Besides, he was grateful for Luther’s support of his history hobby, which came in the form of a flexible work schedule and extra time off when he needed to put together yet another thesis. “Thanks, Luther. I really appreciate it.”

“No problem, buddy.” Luther clapped Dave on the shoulder, before he nodded toward the door. “Now, you better head out. Don’t want to miss the opening reception.”

**

“Dave? Dave!” Klaus called out, as he stumbled onto the sidewalk in front of the coffee shop. He then whipped his head, turning it in all directions, desperately searching for any sign of the man he’d thought he’d lost last night.

The man he’d thought that he’d lost decades and decades ago.

“Dave!” Klaus called out for him again, his heart aching in his chest, his knees threatening to give out from underneath him. “Dave, please—”

“You don’t want to do that.” A woman’s voice rang through Klaus’ ears, seeming somehow right beside him, but also miles and miles away.

And then, everything around Klaus froze right in its place. The world stopped moving, completely, every bicycle chime coming to an end, every person walking on the sidewalk paused before they took their next step. Even the birds in the sky had frozen, mid-flight, one of them a few inches away from flying into the coffee shop’s window, its beak precariously close to the glass.

“What the fuck…what the fuck…” Klaus softly whispered, as he brought a hand up to his forehead. “Fuck. I’m finally fucking losing it! I knew I shouldn’t have tried acid and coke on the same fucking night again. I never have a good time when I do it, and I always end up seeing shit like this—”

“You’re not seeing anything, Klaus.” A woman, with bright, cloud-white hair and a black, cocktail dress now stood in front of him. “Well, you’re seeing what the Commission can do, but you’re certainly not hallucinating.”

“The Commission? What the fuck is the commission—”

“You really are something, aren’t you, Klaus Hargreeves?” The woman grinned so wide that Klaus could’ve counted her teeth. “It’s amazing. I always thought that your brother would’ve been the one to destroy everything we work so hard to keep intact, but it was going to be you, all along.”

The woman laughed, after she spoke, the sound somehow resembling a wolf about the pounce, or an avalanche about to roll down the side of a hill. “You don’t even know what you’ve done, do you?”

“All I did was steal a briefcase,” Klaus started. “Is that what this is about? Because I promise, I didn’t do anything else. I don’t even know what the Commission is—”

“All you did was alter the timeline.” The woman’s lips turned into a hard line. “All you did was irrevocably put everyone on Earth on a different path than originally intended. Or didn’t you realize that your family seems a lot more _Brady Bunch_ than they ever did before?”

“They do seem a lot happier,” Klaus mused. “Which, I’m not going to lie, _is_ pretty fucking weird. Especially with Luther smiling like that—”

“And Dave?” The woman continued. “I’m sure you noticed him, too. Just as beautiful as the night you two first met, I suppose.”

“I thought…I thought that Dave was—”

“Dead? Well, yes. He was supposed to be.” The woman sighed. “But somehow, your little adventure through time seems to have changed the circumstances of his birth. The Dave Katz you know was born a lot later than he was originally…”

The woman paused for a moment, before she spoke again. “…And he doesn’t know who you are, at all, Klaus. Which is why I don’t recommend trying to flag him down in the street. He’ll probably think you’re a stalker. Or worse.”

“But I love him.”

“He doesn’t know _that_ ,” the woman explained. “Because as I believe I just told you, Klaus Hargreeves, he doesn’t know _you_. But don’t worry. He will.”

“Yeah. He will.” Klaus nodded, with a wild grin. “Because if I made him fall in love with me once, I can make him fall in love with me again—”

“Who said anything about falling in love?” The woman scoffed. “You misunderstand me, Klaus. Dave Katz isn’t going to get to know you on your own terms. He’s going to get to know you on _mine._ Because courtesy of your little act of time mischief, you now officially work for me.”

“…Work for you?” Klaus burst into a laugh. “Pardon me, _Storm_ , but I haven’t worked for anyone. Ever. Not after what happened to Ben. And I’m certainly not going to start with you when you haven’t even told me who you are—”

“I’m your Handler,” the woman clarified. “And that’s all you need to know if you want to keep your precious family together and alive. Because make no mistake, Klaus, this divergent timeline you’ve managed to secure for yourself? Can all be taken away with the snap of my fingers. And if you don’t want to wake up tomorrow in the same pit of hell you found yourself in before you stole Commission property, it’s in your best interest to do exactly what I say.”

The Handler then leaned closer to Klaus, before she murmured, “And if not for your family’s sake…if not for your sake, too…then at least do it for Dave. He deserves to live, doesn’t he? He doesn’t deserve to be buried in an unmarked grave with a dirty bullet through his skull—”

“I’ll do it!” Klaus cried out. “Fine! I’ll do whatever the fuck you want! Just leave Dave alone.”

“Sorry. That’s not going to be possible.” The handler sighed, her hand reaching into her pocket. She then handed Klaus what looked to be a dark canister, an object that was clearly too big to have fit in the side of her dress.

And as Klaus wondered just how deep the Handler’s pockets actually went, he took the canister into his hand.

“You should open it. Whenever you have the time.” The handler smiled, before she turned away from Klaus. “I’ll be in touch, Klaus Hargreeves. And don’t think I won’t be watching your every move. Remember, one misstep and the whole thing can come crashing down, right on your head.”

“Wait. How am I supposed to know if I’m doing the wrong thing—” Klaus started to ask, but just as he looked up from the canister, his attention turning back to the Handler, she was already gone.

And with her sudden disappearance, the city came right back to life. The bicycles returned to their chiming, the people on the sidewalk continued down the street. Even the birds in the sky went back to flying through the air, with the bird at the coffee shop window slightly bumping its head against the glass before it began to fly up and above the building’s exterior.

Klaus then peered back down at the canister, as it hissed itself open, with a rolled-up, paper message revealing itself inside.

And when Klaus pulled the message out of the canister, his fingers gently tugging at its sides until the words on the sheet were perfectly readable and just as plain as day, he felt something thudding against his heart, something he hadn’t felt since the first time he’d watched a young man die on the battlefield, since the first time he’d watched a helpless medic try to force that same man’s organs back inside of his abdomen, the medic’s fingers bloody and frantic.

_“Keep Dave Katz Safe.”_

That was all the message had to say. But Klaus’s brain still stung with the memories of the last time he’d been at Dave’s side, unable to keep him safe, unable to protect him from a goddamn thing.

And before he’d even noticed it, Klaus was weeping against the sidewalk, his knees curled up against his chest, his face turned toward the warm pavement.

**

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all! I'm new to the TUA fandom and didn't expect to be here but uh I saw Season 1 and couldn't stop thinking about Dave and Klaus and what a raw deal they got (I'm sure this'll be rectified in Season 2 or so I hope!). I...also just kind of love the idea of Klaus being the one dealing with the Commission and not Number Five because he's chaotic and I love him.
> 
> Oh, and side note: all of the characters still have their respective abilities! I do mention the "Brady Bunch" for a reason, though. In this reality, a lot of things are super different for the Hargreeves children (read: they're a lot happier at least for now lol!). Anyway, yeah, please join me as I try to weave a tale of time travel, queer love and lots of lots of snark.
> 
> Tumblr here:
> 
> (please don't scream at me but please say hi!)
> 
> https://timetravelandoctopi.tumblr.com


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